dream big READ!

in an attempt to enjoy this small town life a little bit better (for some reason it's been really hard for me to live here...if you didn't already know that! :) i decided to volunteer to start up friends of the library again.  

friends of the library is a little organization that helps out with the summer reading program and other activities at the library throughout the year.  i'd heard that the library used to have all sorts of fun activities but about six years ago the ladies in charge got burnt out and no one wanted to step up to the plate!  so i stepped out of my comfort zone and volunteered.  

the librarians were soo excited that i was willing to help and they immediately gave me the contact info of a few other ladies who had shown interest in helping out as well.  things came together really quickly and i met with gini (a former librarian) to get things going.  we decided to have a kick-off party for the summer reading program and then have a little activity every wednesday in june.

this past wednesday we finished up the last activity and even though it was all a lot of work, everything worked out so well and we had a great turn out for each activity!

i was able to meet a bunch of new ladies and i've learned a lot working with other people.  since we pulled this all together in a matter of a couple weeks, i'm excited to see what we can do next summer since we'll have the whole year to prepare :)

...

before the kick-off i made this sign for the arts council board & little fliers to pass out to all of the elementary students before school got out:

for the kick-off i made signs to stake out front and we had balloons on the signs & inside.  it was all very festive :)  i stayed from about 11-1ish to sign kids up for the summer reading program and oversee the coloring station.  kids could decorate a little paper star with crayons & glitter glue which we later hung up around the library.  we also handed out little dreamsicles for a treat (the tag below was stapled onto the wrapper.)  we had over 150 kids sign up at the kick-off!!  it was all a great success.

(yes...avery looks like a little vagabond!  it was a crazy day...)

i was unable to attend the first activity (we were in sf) but i was in charge of the next week "dreams & wishes."  we had four stations that the kids could rotate around to (each station was 15 min) including: storytime, paper bag puppet making, bingo w/popcorn, and an outdoor game.  it went well--we had over 120 people there!

for the next week "night adventures" gini made a rocket launcher out of pvc pipe.  the kids were able to make their own rockets out of paper and launch them outside!  it was a huge hit and some of the rockets went so far.  

for our last activity (until the swimming party in august) we had some teenage girls come in to read their favorite bedtime stories to the kids "under the stars"...in the city council room.  it was so much fun!  i thought it would set the mood to hang christmas lights from the ceiling + gini brought the lantern.  we put blankets down for the kids to sit on while they listened & ate their "smores in a cup."  not sure how the idea came to me, but the treat turned out really well...and we only had a few marshmallows smashed into the carpet :) 

after all was said and done i treated max & ave to smore of the smores in a cup :)  they didn't mind one bit.  they were such good supporters & even though it was a little crazy at times trying to juggle two kids AND being in charge, somehow it all worked out!